Across the West, tribal nations are on the front lines of a new debate over how to balance the needs and costs of clean energy. Extracting the fuels of the future is often far from clean.
Spain’s rare earths pit greens against tech security—and profit https://phys.org/news/2021-10-spain-rare-earths-pit-greens.h…
Spain’s untapped rare earths are stoking tensions between mining companies and environmentalists and farmers who fear the devastating impact from extracting the minerals considered as essential for a high-tech and low-carbon economy.
We argued the transmission line in previous posts with links to articles in the State of Maine newspapers that showed the power would NOT benefit the people of Maine but would send the electricity to higher priced markets.
The transmission lines would also cut through state parks and forests plus would take family farms by eminent domain. For a state that does a lot of tourism having large electric lines cutting through your forests is not too smart.
We argued the transmission line in previous posts with links to articles in the State of Maine newspapers that showed the power would NOT benefit the people of Maine but would send the electricity to higher priced markets.
At the same time, the people of Maine didn’t vote for the betterment of Gaia. NIMBY is real in a world with competing interests, it slows down renewables and often makes sense.
Norway in legal quandary after wind turbines ruled a threat to reindeer herder rights https://news.yahoo.com/norway-legal-quandary-wind-turbines-1…
Norway faces hard choices over the future of two major wind farms stripped of their licences for jeopardising the way of life of Sami reindeer herders, but it remains unclear whether they should be dismantled, the energy minister said. While herders in the Fosen region of coastal central Norway have called for the giant machines to be removed and the landscape restored, the owners said they hope to apply for a new licence that would not violate Sami rights…
Reindeer herders in the Nordic country argue that the sight and sound of giant wind turbines frighten their animals grazing nearby and thereby jeopardise age-old traditions.
Norway’s supreme court unanimously ruled on Oct. 11 that the construction of the Storheia and Roan wind farms in Fosen had violated the herders’ cultural rights set by international conventions, and that the operating permits were thus invalid.
But officials in Vermillion County [Indiana] effectively outlawed wind energy last year, squashing overtures from renewable energy developer Apex Clean Energy.
On Saturday, landowners in the county who had leased their property for a wind project being pushed by MidAmerican Energy Company, received letters informing them that the company was abandoning plans to add 30 wind turbines to the controversial Arbor Hill wind project. The cancellation appears to end a multi-year battle between the company, a subsidiary of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, and angry county residents who united to oppose the landscape-blighting project…
In 2018, the Des Moines Register reported that the company had spent about $12.3 billion on wind projects in the state and that it “will receive about $10 billion in federal production tax credits for the investment, covering the capital costs needed to build the wind farms.”
"In Crawford County, Ohio, residents voted by a 3 to 1 margin to reject the proposed 300-megawatt Honey Creek Wind Project which was being promoted by Apex Clean Energy…
"Also on Tuesday, voters in three Michigan townships “resoundingly rejected ordinances enabling the Montcalm Wind project by Apex Clean Energy, a developer attempting to erect 75 turbines on farmland in Montcalm County northeast of Grand Rapids.”… Apex gained notoriety in New York for its failure to disclose the presence of known Bald Eagle nests on Galloo Island where it wanted to install multiple wind turbines…
“Tuesday’s rejections in Ohio and Michigan bring the total number of rejections or restrictions of wind energy in the US this year to 51. Since 2015, there have been at least 375 rejections of restrictions and those have occurred in states from Maine to Hawaii.”
In Missouri a transmission line that would bring wind power electricity from Kansas to eastern markets has been blocked. The issue is emminent domain and if farmers will receive fair price for their land.
What does this imply? We are ready for more nuclear? Or we want solar farms instead? Or to heck with global warming. We think fossil fuels are fine?
Is this just griping? Or do they think there’s a better way?
New power sources require new transmission lines, so there will be dissension whatever the generating source is. Solar and wind are more diffuse so they tend to be farther away from urban centers. A nat gas plant could be closer to a city and have less NIMBY.
Optimum location for a fossil fuel powerplant is often near a water source–used for cooling and for steam. Cities have similar needs. So often close together. Best east of a city so smoke blows away from the city.
Wind farms seem to work well on farm land. One I have seen mostly required a gravel road for access. But optimum wind may not be near city. And the bird problem can be a concern.
Solar farms can be anywhere but clear weather and lots of sun best. Livestock can still munch the grass/weeds between the panels.
What I remember when I lived in NW Chicago in '60-'61 was the clean white snow as it fell, then the gray/black speck from the coal used everywhere, the next morning… Lived in a brownstone off Belmont for that winter… For a 19 year old from Calif, quite an adventure…
What I remember when I lived in Pittsburgh in 1968-1971 was the clean white snow as it fell, then the gray/black speck from the coal used everywhere, the next morning along with salt and cinders … For a 25-27 year old from Calif, quite an adventure…
Ecological challenges represent another headwind for offshore wind. Although conservationists argue that building more emission-free renewable power is critical to combat climate change and bolster dwindling ocean species threatened by warming oceans, the short-term impacts on marine life can be significant.
Marine scientists have warned that projects along the New England coast could imperil endangered North Atlantic right whales. And in August, the New England Fishery Management Council identified Atlantic waters already leased for offshore wind development as a “habitat area of particular concern,” a designation that encourages the government take a more stringent and cautious approach to permitting.
Plans for a pumped hydro development west of the Blue Mountains have alarmed local Indigenous communities about the impacts on a culturally important mountain. Energy Australia wants to build and operate a pumped hydro dam on Mount Walker at Lake Lyell near Lithgow…
However, plans for a large concrete reservoir along the ridge line of Mount Walker have residents worried about a popular recreation spot and sparked concern among local Indigenous communities.
Wind turbines – towering emblems of the shift toward renewable energy – have been cited as a primary reason why three of Canada’s native bats species are in existential peril.
The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, an independent body that reports to the federal government, recommended on Wednesday that the three species be listed as endangered.
In the month after Germany shut down its last three operating nuclear power plants, the effect on electricity prices in the country has been small, the vice head of the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA), Barbie Kornelia Haller, told public broadcaster BR. “The effects are extremely small,” Haller said. Market prices have not moved upwards at all and, if anything, electricity became cheaper between 15 April and 15 May, as the loss of nuclear power capacity has been outweighed by other effects, in particular the growing share of renewable power sources, she added. Haller said a real assessment would only be possible once one or two full years could be compared. If measured against power production in all of Europe, the effect of Germany’s nuclear exit has been difficult to detect at all, researcher Bruno Burger of Fraunhofer ISE told BR. “The weather has a much greater influence than the three nuclear power plants, and our neighbouring countries also have a much greater influence on the price of electricity,” he said. The three plants produced about 30 terawatt hours of electricity per year, of which one-third could already be saved this year by no longer having to help out France as much in cushioning the impact of its own nuclear plant crisis, Burger said. The remainder could be entirely substituted with additional wind and solar power installations, the researcher argued.
Critics of the phase-out had warned that it would result in price hikes that add more pressure on customers already burdened by the energy crisis. However, renewable power production is often high during spring, while it can fall to very low levels in winter.